The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office advise against all travel to Uganda.  This is what they have to say:

We advise against all travel to northern and north eastern Uganda because of rebel insurgency and tribal clashes.  In July 2005, there was an armed attack on a vehicle in the northern part of the Murchison Falls National Park. We strongly advise people not to visit this park.

There have been no incidents in Mgahinga National Park and those parts of Kisoro District that border the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since early December 2004, but we advise travellers to this region to continue to check our Travel Advice regularly.

Most visits to Uganda are safe. Kampala is a relatively safe city. By day you can walk the streets and visit local markets. But opportunistic crime such as burglaries, muggings and drive-by bag snatches is on the increase in Kampala. We strongly recommend that after dark, you avoid going out on foot. Do not make yourself an obvious target for muggers and pickpockets. Do not carry large sums of cash in the streets or wear expensive looking jewellery or watches.

In urban areas keep car doors locked and windows shut at all times. There have recently been a number of thefts of personal property from cars and taxis while stationary in traffic. If stopped by armed men, do not attempt to resist. Avoid travelling outside main towns after dark.

Take care of your passport: theft of EU passports has increased in recent months.

We strongly advise that you obtain comprehensive travel and medical insurance before travelling.

The Great Express, a luxury overnight train for rich Russians and foreign tourists is now running between Moscow and St. Petersburg.  The cost ranges from 3,150 roubles, or $110, for the nine-hour overnight trip in a first-class seat to 12,500 roubles for a luxury compartment with a bed and bathroom.  All compartments are fitted with flat-screen televisions showing satellite channels and have wireless Internet connections.

The US government is dropping plans to collect data from commercial data bases to identify potential terrorists on passenger lists. The main reason cited is concern over privacy.

You don't have to go far to encounter trouble!  New research from the UK's Direct Line Travel Insurance indicates that over one in 10 Britons has been robbed while on holiday and a further 27 percent know someone who has. Spain is the country with the highest number of thefts with 38 percent of those who have experienced robberies claiming it happened there.  France is next on the list with 14 percent, Italy seven per cent and Greece five percent.

Money is the most frequently stolen possession (41 percent), followed by purses, wallets, cameras and jewellery.

Be careful what you write whilst on-line in China.  Yahoo was accused last week of helping Chinese authorities identify and imprison a reporter who described government fears about pro-democracy activists.  Shi Tao of China's Contemporary Business News attended a meeting at which an official read a government memo warning of possible social unrest during the 15th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.  Using an Internet alias, Shi described the government memo in an email sent to a U.S.-based pro-democracy website, incurring the anger of Chinese authorities.

According to Reporters Without Borders, Yahoo's Chinese division helped local authorities crack Shi's alias, leading to his arrest, two-hour trial, and 10-year prison sentence.  Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft are all competing for a share of the Chinese internet market and all three come under criticism for lowering ethical standards when it comes to free speech.  In June, Microsoft fended off criticism for blocking Chinese bloggers on its sites from using words like “liberty,” “capitalism,” and “human rights.”

A member of Globetrotters Club? Interested in a £1,000 travel award?

Know someone who is? We have £1,000 to award each year for five years for the best submitted independent travel plan. Interested?

Then see our legacy page on our Website, where you can apply with your plans for a totally independent travel trip and we'll take a look at it. Get those plans in!!

Zimbabwe is said to be about to import four endangered Siberian tigers from China for captive breeding.  China had received zebras, elephants and impala as part of an “exchange programme”. Yes, this comes from a country that is rapidly imploding, people being displaced from their homes and land, rampaging inflation and there is not enough to eat.  A local biologist working in Bulawayo, said the plan was “a complete load of garbage”, adding that the country even lacked the resources to look after its own wildlife.

Ever worried about being able to access your cash whilst overseas?  These two websites allow you to locate Visa and Mastercard ATMs.

A monk has travelled from China to Ruabon, near Wrexham in Wales to help open a special temple to teach the ancient discipline of Shaolin.  Shi Xing Du will draft a syllabus for students to learn the Shaolin way, which includes kung fu, Chinese medicine, Buddhism and meditation.  The centre of the discipline's teaching is the Shaolin temple in the Henan Province of China, which is a Buddhist temple.  Shi Xing Du said he knew instinctively that north Wales was the right place to create a temple. “Wales is beautiful and I think it is the right place to set up a school,” he said.  Speaking through his disciple Pol Wong, he said the area surrounding the school in Ruabon was similar to the area around the Shaolin temple on the Song Shan Mountain.  To find out more information, see: http://www.chenloong.com/school.htm

A restaurant in north east China was closed down for listing stir fried tiger meat with peppers for US $98 or a kilo of tiger meat for US $ 863.  Maybe it was the fact that the sale of tiger meat is outlawed in China or that the restaurant was less than a mile away from a Siberian Tiger Park that attracted the attention of local authorities.  Police raided the restaurant to find that actually the tiger meat was donkey marinated in tiger urine – to give it “a special flavour”.  Hhhmm, nice.